VIDEO: Aransas Pass hotel destroyed by fire; owner plans to stay

ARANSAS PASS - The old family photographs, family china received as a wedding present more than a century ago and antiques collected during a lifetime can never be replaced.

Now the memories of her childhood home are all 92-year old Frances Hoover have left following a fire that ravaged an Aransas Pass hotel Tuesday night. Jackson Hotel, which she lived in and operated until retirement, was passed on to her by her mother, who died at 90.State fire marshals are investigating the fire's cause, Aransas Pass Fire Chief Rickie Kilgore said."We saw the plume of smoke as soon as we came out into the parking lot," Toole said.

When they returned to the hotel at the corner of South Houston Street and West Goodnight Avenue, the building was engulfed in flames, he said.

In his upstairs room, Barron Fallis heard the fire alarm and noticed a strange smell, he said. He went downstairs to alert building owner Cherry Hoover-Harrison, Frances Hoover's daughter. As they reached the top of the stairs, Fallis saw a crowd gathering outside. A woman yelled that the house was on fire. Telling Hoover-Harrison to get her mother out of the house, he ran to his room for his cellphone.

"By the time I opened the door, there was a wall of smoke, coal black," he said. "I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. That is terrifying."

Within 10 minutes of hearing the alarm, flames were shooting out the windows, Fallis said.

Downstairs, Hoover-Harrison and a woman from a nearby shop carried her mother out of the house.

"We forgot to get a cane," she said. "I said, 'Her feet won't touch the ground.' "The Red Cross provided a two-night stay at a local hotel and money for immediate needs, Red Cross volunteer Juan Lopez said. Wednesday, volunteers returned to give referrals to local organizations that provide housing, food and clothing assistance.

Fallis said he might move in with friends in San Antonio.

Toole plans to find another house to rent in the area, he said.

With tears in her eyes, Hoover-Harrison said she can't leave the house her mother and grandmother had owned all their lives.

"I'm going to try my best to get something back," she said. "I'm not leaving. My mom can't leave."

Hoover-Harrison owns a smaller set of apartments behind the main structure that were not damaged in the fire. A tenant is vacating one of those apartments, and she plans to move her mother to that unit as soon as the electricity is repaired, so she can stay on the property.